GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The men's lacrosse team was able to shake off a couple of recent losses and played well in their home opener with a 14-5 win over Quincy in GLVC action on Friday afternoon. The Panthers moved to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the GLVC, while Quincy is now 4-2 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
The Panthers never trailed in the game and came out strong scoring the first four goals of the game. Four different players scored in building the quick lead coming from
James Johnston,
Keelan McKouen,
Jordan Caskenette, and
Dylan Day paced the Panthers to the early advantage. The Panthers committed a few penalties that allowed the Hawks to score their first two goals. Neal Dardis scored at 6:47 of the first and Jordan Ernst scored at 11:35 of the second quarter. Caskenette scored in between those goals at 5:35 of the first on a man-up chance as well.
Quincy got to down 5-3 at 8:31 of the second quarter but then the Panthers turned up the intensity with five straight goals for a 10-3 lead. Johnston scored four straight goals for DU spanning the second and third quarters. McKouen scored the fifth goal of the run at 5:23 of the third quarter to essentially put it away.Â
Caskenette started the fourth quarter with his third goal of the game at 13:38. Quincy scored their final goal at 10:06 to make it 11-5. The Panthers ran off the final three goals as Day scored at 7:56 from Caskenette. Then
Drew Hinckley scored his first career goal at 6:15 also from Caskenette. Caskenette scored for the fourth time in the game and 21st time this season with 3:40 left to play.
Caskenette finished with those four goals and had three assists for a career-high seven points. Johnston had a career-high five goals on nine shots.
Lucas Renzetti won 16-of-22 faceoffs for his best percentage of the season.
Griffin Poll had seven groundballs, two assists, and three caused turnovers.
Daniel Milano made 10 saves for the Panthers in net. The final total shots were 47-20 in favor of DU including 27-15 in shots on goal.
